Kitchen Corner

June 30, 2009

I've no idea what cakes I would like to bake, my mind is just hanging and running out of idea. Other than making ice cream, I feel myself have no mood to do anything (may be the weather is too hot). So, I decided to do something simple rather than complicated baking.

This the simple marble chiffon cake I've baked which is nothing special that had filled my mood as the texture is excellent. The bad thing is the surface got a tunnel which I've no idea why. How nice if it's a smooth surface and this could be the perfect baked chiffon.

This reminded me life is not perfect, it's the matter of how we value and appreciate everything we have at the moment.

Mix all the egg yolks, water, oil together until well combined. Add in the 70g of flour and the 20g of sugar, mix everything well combine and no lumps left.

Measure the egg yolk mixture and divide it into equal quantities of two portions in separate mixing bowl.

Mix 10g of the flour into a bowl of egg yolk mixture and mix 8g of cocoa powder into another bowl of egg yolk mixture.

Beat the egg whites in a clean large bowl until peak foam. Gradually add in sugar, one tablespoon at a time. Then finally add in corn flour. Make sure the corn flour mix well in the egg mixture. The egg whites mixture should be peak foam, smooth and shiny. Gently fold in half of the egg whites mixture into the cocoa egg yolks mixture and plain mixture accordingly until well combine. (Note: This stage took some times and patient and practice. Make sure all the egg whites mixture well combine with the egg yolks mixture without breaking the egg whites. Little egg whites left will cause a big hole in the cake during baking. And, over mixing will cause it hardly rise during the baking.)

Pour the well mix mixture into a 21cm chiffon cake tin and bake at a 170'C preheated oven for 50 - 55 minutes. After baked, let the baked cake turn upside down for cooling before unmold it. Enjoy this supper soft and fluffy chiffon cake!

June 24, 2009

As requested by Lxxx, I would like to share this recipe here with all of you. It's a real rich, bittersweet and creamy ice cream. Use the best dark chocolate at 70% cocoa solid would definately give you a sharp taste. I would said, this chocolate ice cream might not suitable for children as they might feel bitter. However, you can change the dark chocolate to 55% cocoa solid, it would be nice for children. For adults, go for 70% cocoa and you won't regret!

Warm 250ml of the cream with the cocoa powder in a medium sauce pan, whisking to thoroughly blend the cocoa. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer at a very low boil for 30 seconds, whisking constantly. Remove from the heat and add the chopped chocolate, stirring until smooth. Then stir in the remaining 250ml cream. Pour the mixture into a large bowl, scraping the saucepan as thoroughly as possible, and set a mesh strainer on top of the bowl.

Warm the milk, sugar and salt in the same saucepan. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm milk into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the chocolate mixture until smooth, then stir in the vanilla. Stir until cool over an ice bath.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. If the cold mixture is too thick to pour into your machine, whisk it vigorously to thin it out.

June 22, 2009

This is not about cakes baking but just a bit of sharing on this Oven BBQ Spare Ribs which I've discovered days ago. There are many way to make your own bbq sauce whereas here is the one I find it quite good to share with and the sauce is nice to marinade for other meats too! Try and taste!!
Recipe for the BBQ Sauce:
(From James Martin)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 onion, peeled and chopped
4 garlic, crushed
3 red chilli, finely chopped (add more if you like)
2 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed
115g dark brown sugar
100ml dark soy suace
600ml tomato ketchup
2 tablespoon of honey
Salt and black pepper

Toast the fennel seeds at medium heat until you got the nice smell coming out but becareful not to burnt it. In another saucepan with olive oil, fry the onioin, garlic, chilli and toasted fennel. Cook at medium heat until the onion soften but not caramilized. Add the brown sugar follow by the dark soy suace. When the sugar dissolved, add tomato ketchup follow by the honey. Let it simmering for 3 minutes then add salt and black pepper. Cook and stir another 3 minutes and set aside to cool down. If you want it to be a very smooth paste, blend it in a blender or just leave it as a chuncky mixture. You could keep this bbq sauce in a jar and store in the fridge for up to a week.
To cook the spare ribs, place it on a large baking tray, marinade with some dried herbs, either thyme or rosemary, salt and pepper. Add a cup of water into the baking tray, cover the tray with an aluminium foil and cook in the 180'C preheated oven for 45 minutes until the meat cooked. Insert a knife into the meat to check whether it's cooked. Drain the water and place a baking sheet on the tray. Put back the meat into the tray and marinade the spare ribs with the bbq sauce. Cook in the oven at 200'C for 10 minutes then turn the ribs onto another side and cook for 10 minutes. Brush the meat with some bbq sauce again and continue to cook in the oven until you've got a nice colored and caramilized texture on the meat. Enjoy!

June 18, 2009

I've been very crazy making ice cream recently. The reason is either the weather is too hot or I need to finish all the cream before it expired. What a good excuse! Oh yes, I'm quite naughty recently. At first, I was inspired by Small Small Baker's mango ice cream and it was fantastic! Then, I read through a recipe book of "The Perfect Scoop" which had given very details explanation of making real ice cream. I followed exactly the recipe to make a matcha ice cream and dark chocolate ice cream, it's real good!

After trying three types of ice cream, I still had some left over cream so I make this durian ice cream since now is the durian season and it's quite cheap in the market.

I followed the mango ice cream recipe from SSB but using durian. As the sweetness from the durian is very strong, I cut down some sugar to balance the flavour. This is my first time having such a super rich durian ice cream, we find ourselves like eating the real durian and it's totally different from what I bought from the supermarket. It's so flavourful till you will find the smell stay in your mouth for the whole day (no kissing on that day) kekekeke.... :) One thing good about homemade ice cream is we could have the REAL flavour of ice cream!

Remove the seeds from the durian meat, I know you're going to lick your finger but please do it after you remove all ok :) Place the durian meat and sugar in a food processor to make them in puree. Transfer the durian meat to a large bowl and mix into the yogurt. Whip the cream in another bowl until stiff and fold it into the durian mixture. The recipe from SSB noted that the mixture could be store in the freezer without process it in an ice cream maker. However, I still process it in the ice cream maker to have a better texture. The result was very creamy!
Either you put it directly into an ice cream container or process in an ice cream maker, it has to be chilled in the freezer for 5 hours or overnight. Enjoy and no kissing.... kekeke...

June 15, 2009

That's very hard to resist in getting some blueberries when it's on sale. I just love it so much. Without thinking about what to do with it and I buy it first. Then, I came out with this recipe which is a very rich, buttery yet flavourful pastry, that's sound quite naughty and yes I think I'm quite naughty recently as for some reason I've been good for some time :)

This is something that the 'English favorites' and also my Mr. favorite. His every bite will naturally came out with an "uhmmmm......" kind of yummy voice and make me feel so happy that I've made it real good, it's just a very encouraging kind of voice. I've control the sweetness of the entire pastry which is from the tart to fragipane as well as the crumble. The sweetness from the blueberry is very fresh and juicy. I find that all ingredients are just so friend to each other which the ground almond fragipane enhance the flavour and the crumble toppings give it a bonus texture. Smell good and taste good!

English would love to serve it warm with custard, cream or vanilla ice cream. I only have the mango ice cream which I made earlier so I serve it with a dollop of the leftover ice cream. Our stomach was stuffed after finished a portion as it's a real rich pastry!

Separate the eggs. Add 2 tbsp cold water to the egg yolks and stir with a fork. (You can use the egg whites for another dish or freeze them.)

Place the flour and sugar powder into the bowl of a food processor, followed by the cold butter and the salt.

Turn the processor on and pulse several times until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Add two-thirds of the egg yolk/water mixture and pulse again. If the mixture is still too dry, add the remaining egg and water mixture (you may not need to use all of it). Be careful not to overwork the pastry. Stop pulsing when the mixture has the consistency of chunky breadcrumbs.

Turn the pastry out onto a clean, floured work surface and, with floured hands, bring together to make a smooth dough, but don't knead.

Shape into a flattened ball, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for about 10-15 minutes. You can keep the pastry at this stage for 2-3 days if not using it immediately.

Remove the pastry from the fridge. On a clean, floured work surface, roll it out with a floured rolling pin until it's slightly larger than the flan ring. Using the rolling pin, lift the pastry and lay it over the flan ring.

With your fingers, lightly press the pastry into the sides of the ring. Run a rolling pin over the top of the ring and pull away the excess pastry at the edges. Using your fingers, gently press the pastry up to slightly build up the height of the pastry at the edges. Prick the base of the pastry with a fork. Place in the fridge to relax for about 30 minutes.

In a food processor, blitz the whole almonds to a fine powder and put into a bowl. Then blitz the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add this to the almonds with the lightly beaten eggs and fold in until completely mixed and nice and smooth. Spread the batter on the ready pastry case then place in the fridge to firm up slightly.

Place the almonds, flour, polenta, butter and sugar in a food processor and pulse briefly several times, just to mix. The mixture should look like coarse breadcrumbs.

Tip out into a bowl and add a splash of water. Use a spoon to mix briefly - it should be quite clumpy.

To assemble the tart:

Place the blueberries on top of the ready pastry with fragipane then sprinkle over the crumble. You might not need to use all the crumble. Store them in a zip bag and place in the freezer for future use. Place the ready tart into the 180C preheated oven and bake for 50 minutes. Place it on a wire rack to cool down before unmold. Carefully unmold the tart. If you find the bottom is still soggy, put them back into the oven and bake until harden. Place a piece of aluminium foil to cover the top to avoid burning the crumble.

The tart could store in the fridge or room temperature. I store some leftover in the fridge then reheat in the oven at 150'C for about 10 minutes until it's slightly warm up. Serve with a dollop of ice cream, enjoy!

June 11, 2009

Focaccia bread is just nice to serve with a bowl of warm creamy soup, that's what I normally do. However, I found another way of eating it. Yes, I know some of you already knew a better way of eating it but that's just what I've discovered few days ago. It's a bit shame that I only knew it recently but nothing is too late right?!

I like to use the focaccia recipe from 孟老师的100道面包. It's just so simple to make that I don't have to knead too long for the dough. This time, I made something extra for the recipe which is sandwiched some ham and mozzarella cheese with onion, garlic, herbs and cheddar cheese for toppings.

The result ended up very yummy that I can just eat it straight a way without a bowl of soup. It's a softness and crusty combination from the inside to outside. The topping enhance the flavour which the onion and garlic almost caramelized and the herbs bring out a fantastic aroma together with the cheddar cheese. I like it very much! Hope you'll like it too!

Recipe (I used half the recipe for two):

300g bread

10g sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon yeast

170g water

10g olive oil

onion, sliced

garlic, sliced

oregano and parsley

cheddar cheese

Mix all the ingredients together then gradually add in the olive oil and continue the kneading process until it become a smooth dough. You don't have to knead the dough like making a loaf of bread. Let it proof for 60 minutes.

Divide the dough into a few small portions, it's very depends on your whether you want to make two sandwiches or more or just leave it as a big portion of serving size then give it a rest for ten minutes. As for me, I divide the dough into two portions because I want to make a sandwich. After ten minutes of resting, roll out the dough in any shape you like and place it on a baking tray, I made it into rectangular shape. Then place a few slices of ham and mozzarella cheese on top of the roll out dough and don't forget to leave a space at the edges. Roll out another dough into the same shape and place it the on top and seal the edges tightly. Let it proof for 20 minutes. Egg wash the dough then put the onion, garlic, cheddar cheese and some herbs. Bake at 190'C preheated oven for 25 minutes or until golden brown with a crusty texture. Enjoy!

June 8, 2009

You might be frighten by these alien. It might gives you an uncomfortable feeling. Don't worry it's not worm or insect or rope. My other half thought it's noodles at his first sight. There are non of them. It's just a chestnut cream that was decorated from piping bag.

Well, if you've seen this from the front page of a chiffon recipe book with this similar picture and this is the recipe book that I've been reading 戚枫蛋糕秘方传授. I think the taste of this chiffon might not be so popular, unlike chocolate, coffee or banana chiffon.

The sponge texture is really light, soft and fluffy whereas the taste is not very sweet as I pureed some unsweetened peeled chestnut which I bought from DAISO and mix it with the canned chestnut paste. The topping of the chestnut cream enhance the flavour that is just nice to eat with a bite of sponge and some cream. If you like it, you'll ask for more, but if you don't, you don't even feel to have a second bite. A piece is definitely not enough for me as its lightness really fascinated me.

Recipe:
Egg white mixture:

110g egg whites

55g sugar

5g corn flour

Egg yolk mixture:

40g egg yolks

50g water

40g vegetable oil

50g passion fruit

55g plain flour

35g unsweetened chestnut, blend into puree

35g chestnut paste in can

90g unsweetened whole chestnut, halves

Decoration:

250ml whipping cream

60g unsweetened chestnut, blend into puree

60g chestnut paste in can

30g milk

few unsweetened whole chestnut, halves

How I made it:

Mix all the egg yolks mixture except flour. When everything well combined then add in sifted flour. Mix everything well combine and no lumps left. The mixture would be quite thick and smooth.

Beat the egg whites in a clean large bowl until peak foam. Gradually add in sugar, one tablespoon at a time. Then finally add in corn flour. Make sure the corn flour mix well in the egg mixture. The egg whites mixture should be peak foam, smooth and shiny.

Gently fold in 1/3 of the egg whites mixture into the egg yolks mixture. When everything well combine then gently fold in the 1/2 of the remaining egg whites mixture. Lastly, fold in the remaining egg whites mixture. (Note: This stage took some times and patient and practice. Make sure all the egg whites mixture well combine with the egg yolks mixture without breaking the egg whites. Little egg whites left will cause a big hole in the cake during baking. And, over mixing will cause it hardly rise during the baking.)

Fold in the unsweetened whole chestnut.

Pour the well mix mixture into a 17cm chiffon cake tin and bake at a 160'C preheated oven for 40 minutes. After baked, let the baked cake turn upside down for cooling. Cling wrap the entire chiffon cake with the tin and refrigerated for over night. This will make the texture much nicer.

Unmold the chiffon cake. Whip the cream until thicken. In another bowl, mix the pureed unsweetened whole chestnut, chestnut paste and warm milk until smooth. Fold in 25g of the whipped cream until well mix. Place this chestnut cream into a piping bag.

Spread the chiffon cake with whipping cream then pipe out the chestnut cream on top of the cake and place a few chunky chestnut for garnishment.

June 5, 2009

I bought a pack of organic dried fig from Cold Storage long time ago, due to my sickness, concert and so on, the dried fig has been hibernating in the fridge for sometime. I think I've to use it before it goes expired. This fig and brown sugar cake recipe from the book of "Luscious Healthy Desserts 搞纤低卡烘培" taste quite special for me.

This cake is light and the sweetness from the dried fig is quite special. I reduced some sugar from the cake recipe as I find the fig is very sweet. The cake suppose to be spread with whipped cream but I don't have whipping cream on hand so I decided to make some buttercream to go with it. I think the cake would be much softer and lighter if I rolled it with whipped cream. The method of this recipe is quite similar to chiffon cake unlike some swiss roll recipe which is beat the whole eggs until fluffy then add add the flour. Anyway, it's not very difficult to make and I would like try to replace the fig to prunes, cherry or other dried fruits on my next attempt.

I tried a mango yogurt ice cream recipe from Small Small Baker and it's fantastic! It's very smooth and refreshing, and just so great to have a few scoops in this hot weather.

After my the first attempt on the potato buns for hotdog, I tried to make it again filled with some azuki redbean. Again, it's still not nicely shaped but the bun really soft like the one I bought from the stall.

Cook ingredients (A) at low heat until the fig soften and flavored. Chopped it into big chunk.

Mix water, oil and brown sugar, bring the bowl on the hob at low heat keep stirring until the brown sugar melted.

Mix in the egg yolks and rum then the plain flour. Add in the softened fig.

In another bowl, whisk ingredients (C) until soft peak then fold half of the egg whites into the fig mixture until combine. Add the remaining egg whites into the mixture until everything well incorporated.

Pour into a baking pan and bake for 15 minutes at 190'C preheated oven.

Let the cake cool down before spreading the butter cream or whipping cream and roll up into a swiss roll.

June 2, 2009

These are the real soft buns which the recipe from "孟老师的100道面包". I guess it would be the mashed potato make it so soft. But, I've probloem in shaping the dough nicely. The dough was a bit wet whereas I need to slightly oiled my hand to handle the dough. I think I'll shape it in a simple way next time rather than braiding the dough.
Anyway, the soft buns are really good to eat with some cheddar cheese topping and dried parsley for garnishment. I think this potato dough would be good for making others savory buns too!

Recipe (makes 5 buns):

(A)

110g bread flour

40g plain flour

15g caster sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

70g cold water

2g yeast (1/2 teaspoon)

30g mashed potato
1 egg yolk

(B)

15g butter

(C)

5 pieces hotdog

some shredded cheddar

some dried pasley

Mix ingredients (A) at low speed using a dough hook mixer follow by the mashed potato. Turn to medium speed continue kneading until it become a smooth dough. Add in the (B) unsalted butter and knead with low speed until the butter combine with the dough. Turn to medium speed continue the kneading process until it become a smooth and elastic dough. (the dough will slightly wet, I oiled my hand then...) place the dough into a lightly grease bowl and cover with cling wrap to proof for 80 minutes.

Divide the dough into 5 portions and round them into small balls. Let them rest for 10 minutes.

Wrap the hotdog into each doughs and proof for 25 minutes.

Egg wash the dough and sprinkle some shredder cheddar cheese and dried parsley. Bake at 190'c for 18 minutes until golden brown. Enjoy!